Apparatus for continuously wet treating yarns and fabrics in rope form



Aug. 28, 1962 R. R. LAUPMAN 3,050,976

APPARATUS FoR CONTINUOUSLY WET TREATING YARNs AND FABRICS IN ROPE FORMINVENTOR. ROBERT RONALD LAUPMAN ATTORNEYS R. R. LAUPMAN 3,050,976APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY WET TREATING YARNS AND FABRICS IN ROPE FORMOriginal Filed July 21, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Aug. 28, 1962 INVENTOR.ROBERT RONALD LAUPMAN ATTORN EYS Hired @attent aan 3,050,97 6 APPARATUSFOR CUNTNUGUSLY WET TREAT- ING YARNS AND FABRICS IN RPE FQRM RobertRonald Laupman, Wijchen, Netherlands, assiglnor to Gebr. Stork 8; CosApparatenfabrieh N .V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, a corporation of theNetherlands Original application July 21, 1958, Ser. No. 749,981.Divided and this application Jan. 12, i961, Ser. No. 82,192 Claimspriority, application Netherlands July 20, 1957 4 Claims. (Cl. 68-l76)This is a division of application Serial No. 749,981, tiled July 21,1958.

It is known that in washing and like wet treating yarns and fabrics inthe form of ropes in winch machines, it is advantageous to pass theropes over Winches mounted above the liquid level in the treating bath.During its passage through the machine the yarns and fabrics in ropeform to be treated leaves the liquid, runs over a `winch andsubsequently falls back into the liquid again. The winch may be in theform of a roller against which another roller presses, the rope ofmaterial passing thereover being squeezed out between said rollers. Theaction of such winch machines thus resides in the combination of wetting(the movement of the rope of material in the treating liquid) andsoaking.

In the various constructions the accent in the one machine is placed onan intensive wetting and a brief soaking treatment, while in anothermachine the soaking treatment is longer and the wetting treatmentbriefer. In actual practice it is found that for both components of thetreatment there is a minimum period which will be effective. Insubstantially all cases the treating liquid together with the agentscontained therein must be brought into contact with all parts of therope of material during the wetting treatment, so that the wettingliquid will constantly act on the rope of material. During this contactthe composition of the treating liquid changes, as a rule, so that aftera certain period the liquid in the rope of material must be renewed. if,therefore, the wetting treatment is too brief or not intensive enoughthis renewal is insufficient or irregular.

If the wetting is intensive but if the period during which.

the treating liquid acts on the rope of material between the wettingpassages is too brief, the maximum useful effect of the machine is notreached. The action of the treating liquid on the rope of material isthen insufficient. In some types of machines this is compensated by anexcessively intensive and frequent wetting. The drawback of the lattermethod, however, is the possibility that the rope of material will bemechanically damaged or will undergo a change in structure.

Moreover the frequent squeezing carried out in such machines isundesirable in some cases. This is especially so during theafter-treatment of printed fabrics in rope form, which are to be rinsedand fixed in such machines. Thus, on the one hand it is necessary forthe rinsing (or fixing) liquid to be brought into intimate contact withthe ropes of material to be treated, but on the other hand exposure ofthe rope of material to too large a pressure should be avoided duringthe rinsing treatment because, apart from mechanical damage, this maylead to smudging of the printed areas. This is the reason why vatsprovided with Winches are frequently used. The printed webs are eithertreated with their beginning and end knotted together (discontinuousprocess) or are passed through the machine helically as a continuous webwith the ends of the successive webs sewed together. Due to thedesirability of avoiding squeezing, a large number of passages over thewinch is desired @fue in order to ensure a proper treatment. Besides therate of the passage of the rope of material through the bath must berelatively large in order to obtain a sufricient rinsing action when theskein leaves the liquid and falls back into it again. Also during thepassage over an auxiliary winch a good rinsing action is obtained whenthe rate of passage is sufficiently high, because the rinsing liquidstill contained in the rope of material when it is drawn upwardly ispartly driven out of the rope of material by said auxiliary winch andflows back along the rope of material. The use of a round (closed)auxiliary winch may promote this action.

If certain rinsing treatments, such as the after-treatment of printedfabrics in rope form, are in addition dependent on a certain reaction ofingredients from the rinsing bath with the dyes used, so that the totalrinsing time must be of a certain duration, the dimensions of therinsing machine meeting the demands made may become unattractivelylarge.

For example, in most cases an average peripheral speed yfor the winch of8O meters per minute is desired for obtaining a good rinsing action. lfthe fabric in rope form should at the same time cover a correspondingdistance through the vat and alternately over a winch for completing areaction between the rinsing liquid and, for example, the dyes presenton the fiber, for which a specific reaction time is necessary, themachine must be quite large.

If for economical reasons the apparatus should always be fully occupied,it appears that such a rinsing machine can only be fully untilized bythose concerns that have a need for an after-treatment that correspondswith the output capacity of a product or series of products whichrequire one and the same kind of treatment.

Now it has been found in actual practice that there is a great demandfor a continuous wet treating machine which has a much smaller capacityand which at the same time operates continuously.

According to the invention this demand can be met by periodicallyreversing the direction of movement of a material in rope form duringits passage through a rinsing bath or a bath for another treatment.

crates to continuously wet treat yarns and fabrics in rope form bypassing the rope of material to be treated.

at a constant velocity downwardly into and upwardly out of a pluralityof baths in succession. The driving means for the rope of materialsuperimposes on the movement thereof at the constant velocity areciprocal motion in the direction of the length of the rope ofmaterial, the velocity of which reciprocal motion is sinusoidal.

Although this operation can be mechanically carried out in la great manyways, a preferred embodiment of a winch machine .for carrying out thismethod will be described with reference -to the accompanying drawings.In said drawing: t

FIGURE l is a schematic side elevation view of the winch machine;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-section on line 1II-iI in FIG- URE l; and

FIGURE 3 is a schematic plan view showing the mauner in which a Irope ofmaterial runs over the Winches.

According to the drawing the machine comprises a frame l for the drivingmechanism for a `plurality of Winches 3 located above a rinsing vat 2,over which Winches the rope of material 25 to be ltreated is passed.

Each winch 3 is fixed on a shaft 5, each of which shafts is rotatablysupported in :bearings 6 mounted on the pulleys 7, the 'guiding pulleys8 and the driving pulley 9.

The driving pulley 9 forms part of the driving mechanism yfor theWinches 3. Said driving mechanism, including pulley 9, is mounted on acarriage 11 which has guiding rolle-rs 12 rolling a guiding rail 13secured to the frame 1 so that the carriage 11 `can rnove back andyforth on rail 13. The driving mechanism comprises a driving motorhaving a reduction Agearing 14, ia shaft 16 having thereon a largepulley 17, a driving belt 15 around pulley 17 and gearing 1d, a smallpulley 18 on shaft 1e, and a pulley 20 which is keyed on the same shaftas driving pulley 9, land a'belt 19 around pulleys 18 and 2%. On theshaft 16 of the driving mechanism is secured an arm 21, the free end ofwhich arm is provided With a plurality of coupling holes 22 foradjustably and pivotally coupling the arm 21 to the one end of a rod 23which has its other end pivoted to the frame 1 at 24.

When -the driving motor 14 is in operation the Winches 3 will be drivenin the direction of the arrow P. At the same time, however, the carriage11 and the driving mechanism mounted thereon will :be reciprocated alongthe guiding rail 13 because during the rotation of pulley 17 the arm 21is rotated by the shaft 16, which arm 21 cooperates with the rod 23. Inconsequence the Winches 3 .and the rope of material 25 passed thereoverin the manner shown in FGURES l and 3 Will not be continuously moved inthe direction of the arrow P, but each time the direction of movement ofthe carriage 11 reverses, the direction of movement of the rope ofmaterial will likewise reverse. rlhe rope of material 25, therefore,Will behave as if a movement having a sinusoidal velocity issuperimposed on its continuous advance, lwith the result that each timethe rope of material advances a certain distance, it will be given areturn movement for a smaller distance. The position of the couplingbetween the arm 21 and the rod 23 will determine the measure of saidadvance and return lmovement as well as the rate of discharge ofthe ropeof material 25 from the machine.

The machine Will thus insure that each winch 3 causes the rope ofmaterial 25 to be repeatedly pulled out of the liquid in the rinsing vat2 and to be immersed therein again, `so that notwithstanding theV smallrate of discharge of the rope of material 25 trom the machine a perfectrinsing action on every point of the rope of material is achieved.

Although the embodiment of the winch machine as described isstructurally very simple and as a result attractive, it will be clear4that for effecting yt-he reciprocatory movement of the rope of materialto be treated as required by the method according to the invention agreat many other mechanical arrangements may be chosen. Furthermore itwill be clear that wherever in the foregoing description rinsing ismentioned this should also be understood to comprise any other treatmentof a rope of material in which the reciprocation of said rope ofmaterial has the same purpose or effect as in the rinsing treatment.Furthermore it will be clear that the arm 21 may be rotated by aseparate driving mechanism so that not only the stroke of the `carriagemay be varied but also, independently thereof, the lfrequency of saidstroke may be varied. By mounting said separate driving mechanism forthe arm 21 on `the frame 1 and by pivoting ithe connecting rod 23 to thecarriage 11 it is possible tto vary the frequency of the stroke of thecarriage during the operation of the machine.

It is thought 4that the invention and its advantages will be understoodfrom the foregoing description and it is apparent that various changesmay be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the partswithout departing `from thev spirit and scope of the invention orsacrificing its material advantages, the form hereinbefore described andillustrated in the drawings being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for continuously wet treating fabrics in rope form by amethod in which the rope is passed at a constant velocity downwardlyinto and upwardly out of at least one treating liquid and there issuperimposed on the movement of the rope of material a reciprocatingmotion in the direction of the length of the material with a sinusoidalvelocity, said apparatus comprising a frame, a plurality of Winchesrotatably mounted on s-aid frame, at least one vat beneath said iframe,ya `constant speed driving means on said frame, and a transmission meansconnected :between said driving means and said Winches for driving saidWinches rotatably iirst in one direction and then in the otherdirection, the amount of rotation in said other direction being lessthan the amount of rotation in said one direction.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said transmission meanscomprises a belt connecting all'of said Winches, a driving pulley meansengaged with said belt, and a driving mechanism connected between saiddriving pulley means and said driving means for rot-ating said drivingpulley means first in one direction relative to said Winches and then inthe opposite direction rela- Itive to said Winches.

`3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which said driving mechanismcomprises a carriage on Which said driving means is mounted, saidcarriage being movable back and forth on said frame, said driving pulleymeans being mounted on said carriage, an intermediate pulley meansmounted .on said carriage, and belts connected between said drivingmeans, intermediate pulley means, and said driving pulley means fordriving said driving pulley means, a crank arm on said intermediatepulley means rotatable with said intermediate pulley means, and a rodpivotally connected between said crank arm and said frame, whereby whensaid crank arm rotates said car- -riage is moved back and forth alongsaid frame causing said driving pulley mean-s to rotate rst in onedirection relative to said Winches and then in the opposite directionrelative to said Winches.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which said crank arm and saidrod are adjustably connected to each other for varying the relativelengths of the crank arm.

and the rod.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

